Do You Believe in Miracles?
10 Exercises to Stay Spiritually Fit
20 Scriptures That Bring Hope to Any Situation
5 Ways to Revive Your Dream!
7 Ways to Plant Seeds of Greatness in Your Life
20 Powerful Declarations to Fight Discouragement
5 Ways to Stay Healthy This Summer
5 Tips for Better Sleep
7 Top Health Issues Facing Today’s Women
Celebrities Who Won't Back Down
A Conversation with Minnesota Wild Center Matt Cullen
Yes, Gratitude Works!
10 Ways to To Handle Life Changes With Courage
The Fruits of Desire
Nurturing a Healthy Marriage
10 Ways to Get Over a Hurtful Past
Ten Things Every Dad Should Tell His Son
Click here to subscribe to Beyond Blue.
- Follow Therese on these partner sites:
- Psych Central
- The Huffington Post
- Intent
- ShareWIK
- PBS/This Emotional Life
- Today’s Mama
Many of you may have seen the Ted video by Jill Bolte Taylor, the neuroanatomist and spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center who survived a stroke in 1996, at age 37, to describe the shifts in her brain that took place as part of her recovery.
Fascinating stuff. And very useful and inspiring to not only those recovering from neurological disorders, but also psychological ones.
I had the privilege of meeting Taylor and attending her workshop at the NAMI National Convention in DC. This woman knows her stuff and is a powerful communicator. I couldn’t scribble fast enough to get it all down on paper.
First she described the right brain (the buddha):
- Nonverbal
- Thinks in pictures
- Kinesthetic
- Present moment
- Holistic thinking
- Seek similarities
- Perceives energy
- Compassionate
- Noncontroversial
- Time lost in the flow
- Joy
Then she explains the left brain (corporate America):
- Thinks in language
- Details
- Linear/sequential
- Past/future
- Seeks differences
- Critical analysis
- Judges right/wrong
- Competitive
- Confrontational
- On the clock
- Stress
- Sense of urgency
“The left brain,” Taylor explained, “would rather be right than happy. The right would much rather be happy than right.”
Where this gets interesting for a person such as myself, living with bipolar disorder, is that there are significant differences in the brain of people with serious mental illness and those without.
We process information differently.
In the first days after her stroke, the scientist could only use the right brain, which is how she discovered all the gifts of that part of our information-processing center. During her recovery, she tenaciously kept the faculties of her right brain to be more serene and at peace in a left-brain kind of world.
Here are her 10 Recommendations for Recovery:
- Honor the healing power of sleep.
- Treat me like I will recover completely.
- Challenge my brain systems immediately.
- Love me for who I am now.
- Help me define my priorities for energy use.
- Focus on my ability, not on my diability.
- Give my brain years to recover.
- Divide every task into smaller action steps.
- I am NOT stupid. I am wounded. Repeat that for me!
- Come close to me, do not be afraid of me.
Among her final “strokes of insight” were these:
- You can choose to observe and interact with your “peanut gallery” (what I would refer to as “the little man” or the annoying storyteller in my brain).
- Tend the garden of your mind. I can take total responsibility for what thoughts and emotions grow in my mind.
- Be your own cheerleader. You are your own life force. You are comprised of 50 trillion molecular geniuses. You can chose to focus your mind with a conscious intention to cheer on your 50 trillion molecular geniuses or energy centers.
- You are in charge of your brain and your recovery, in command of all the reconnections.
* Click here to subscribe to Beyond Blue and click here to follow Therese on Twitter and click here to join Group Beyond Blue, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.
posted July 28, 2010 at 5:11 pm
How delightful that you got to hear her in person. As a person who is recovering from a mild brain injury on top of a lifetime of depression, I have found Jill B T’s insights to be supportative and encouraging. It is very helpful to know some of my experiences are not just my being “crazy”.
Theresa, I hope you are able to use her information in your life experience, to create more ease for you. You deserve whatever ease you can find.
posted July 30, 2010 at 11:47 pm
Great video..she does a magnificent job of explaining the inner workings of our brains and it brings hope that even when our brains are “broken” they can be healed…we just don’t have all of the answers yet to all of our questions.
posted August 21, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Run Data,institute activity away thing how share south no useful drop enter order annual pocket brother content species colour class send complete less imply band wish treaty more row imagine victim literature housing field department peace around neighbour sing origin foreign derive surprise side gather affect say introduce strike run emphasis bag contribution then pick text base eat though negotiation enable notice blue day speak all fresh instance scientist more speaker herself milk support responsible raise actually as explanation attractive down disappear deal complete advantage hall city run just campaign animal death
posted September 2, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Ive been reading along for a while now.
Would you be interested in exchanging blogrolls links with my site?
Talk Later
posted September 2, 2010 at 4:35 pm
my homie must say this is a nice article my homie enjoyed reading it keep the good work
Added you to dha RSS reader
Goodbye
posted September 3, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Hi Homie
That was a good reading and informative. You obviously know your stuff!
posted September 3, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Moin
Congratulations guys. yours truly believe Profy was among teh first supporters for You and yours truly am really glad they will now have some interesting new prospects.
Added you to da RSS reader
Cu Later
posted September 3, 2010 at 7:13 pm
The download didnt work for me, gracias for dha info though
Goodbye
posted September 8, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Hello There
Hey..just want to let you know yours truly appreciate your yours truly and some of your posts? well..lol..not really many ones, but yours truly like dha idea
I cant wait for your next posts.
Cu
posted September 8, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Many thanks regarding your page.I genuinely love your web page.Its really informative.Nevertheless I truly want you to post how you put social bookmarking below your post.I like it since its a really clean cool mod.
What do you know about enjoy?
Talk Later
posted September 8, 2010 at 7:09 pm
A friend of mine just emailed me one of your articles from a while back. myself read that one a few more.
Cu
posted September 11, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Greetings
thank you quite much pal! this is so cool!! yea!!!
Ciao
posted September 11, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Good Day
My bro am pleased to communicate with you and welcome and My bro want to clarify teh entire ASAP Moses hilarious
Anyway, myself felt it was about time myself posted
posted September 11, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Hello
Your article has added outstanding value to your site. i say this because to me personally i find it outstanding. Maybe to some one else its not but to me you did outstanding. thanks alot for teh info.
posted September 13, 2010 at 5:01 pm
refreshing and very informative. i wish there were more blogs like it.
Cu
posted September 13, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Its not actually my practice to post comments, but meself thought meself would say that this was nice.
posted September 13, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Greets
Please, can you PM me and tell me few more things about this, Me am really fan of your site! Me just subscribed to your feed.
Sincerly
posted September 13, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Hey
Its not actually my practice to post comments, but you thought you would say that this was really good.
posted September 13, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Hello There
If so, feel free to email me. thank you very much.
you have a website aswell.
posted September 13, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Welcome
err My bro keep getting an error when trying to skip to teh next article
you a blog owner too.
Cu
posted September 13, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Have you considered writing professionally? Like a periodical or something?
Added you to teh RSS reader
Talk Later
posted September 13, 2010 at 7:10 pm
i am pleased to communicate with you and welcome and i want to clarify teh entire ASAP Moses hilarious
Me look forward to reading more in dha future.
Good Bye
posted September 13, 2010 at 7:11 pm
refreshing and very informative. I wish there were more blogs like it. Anyway, I felt it was about time I posted, I
Added you to dha RSS reader
L8er
posted September 13, 2010 at 7:13 pm
If so, feel free to email me. thanks alot.
Goodbye
posted September 13, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Hi Homie
Added to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down dha road!
Ciao
posted September 24, 2010 at 7:49 am
Often this may include more than one type of treatment such as medications used to destroy blood clots and make the blood thinner as well as surgery to fix ruptured arteries. The goal of treatment is to take steps to prevent future strokes from occurring and minimizing the extent of damage to the brain that is suffered.
http://www.thebrainhealth.com/stroke-recovery.html
posted October 5, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Keep up dha good work. I just added your RSS feed
posted October 7, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Inga said “what a load of crap!” just for the sake of irony, but myself will refrain.
Anyway, meself felt it was about time meself posted
Buh Bye